Instructions for living a life: Pay attention. Be astonished. Tell about it. ~ Mary Oliver

TBR List Declutter: Week 9

With these ten, I had apparently finished with the book of books. The New York Times had a “Top 20 Writers Under 40” thing a few years ago, and based on my tags, I seem to have started gathering TBRs from that list.

Just today I added a handful more books to my TBR because I’m incorrigible. I’m not counting the ones I add right now because hopefully by the time I get to the end of the list, I will have read a few titles and it will all even out. Of course, lately I’ve been reading titles that aren’t on my Goodreads TBR, so that doesn’t bring my TBR numbers down.

#81: Finding Darwin’s God: A Scientist’s Search for Common Ground Between God and Evolution by Kenneth R Miller

Date added: 03/09/2010

Why is it on my TBR? In college, we had Common Learning, a required course for all first-year students. In autumn of 1994, the Common Learning class was about Darwin, and I learned that a lot of what I thought I knew about Darwin was false. I went on to minor in religion, and have always been confused as to why there’s such insistence in some quarters that religion and evolution can’t go together. A friend of mine from college reviewed this one favorably, and I suspect that’s why it’s on here.

Why is it on my TBR? I’m pretty sure my friend Amanda recommended it to me.

Do I own it? No.

Verdict: Keep. Seems like a quick, fun read, perhaps good for on an airplane.

Project list: none

#83:College Without High School: A Teenager’s Guide to Skipping High School and Going to Collegeby Blake Boles

Date added: 05/03/2010

Why is it on my TBR? I added this at the end of my first year homeschooling my daughter. Apparently even then I was getting the “what about high school?” questions.

Do I own it? No.

Verdict: Keep. I’ll probably skim this one. I’m not a huge fan of unschooling, but we are moving to a more child-directed model as my daughter gets older. While I have no doubt that my daughter will cover all topics covered in high school—and then some—before college application time, this might give us a few ideas about how to keep track of her studies in a way that she can submit to colleges in lieu of a high school transcript.

Project list: none.

#84: Every Last Oneby Anna Quindlen

Date added: 06/07/2010

Why is it on my TBR? It’s supposed to start out describing a life quite a bit like my own, but then there’s a twist that changes everything and about which readers shouldn’t know too much going in or it will dampen the punch.

Do I own it? No.

Verdict: Keep. I am too intrigued to remove this one from the list.

Project list: none.

#85: Ahab’s Wife, or The Star-Gazer by Sena Jeter Naslund

Date added: 06/07/2010

Why is it on my TBR? I’m not sure. Maybe because of the Moby-Dick tie-in?

Do I own it? No.

Verdict: Go. I’m put off by reviewers mentioning the presence of big names in history, especially those who were contemporaries and/or friends of Melville, which seems a little precious to me.

Project list: n/a

#86: In the Heart of the Canyon by Elisabeth Hyde

Date added: 06/07/2010

Why is it on my TBR? I suspect I heard about this through NPR or The New York Times.

Do I own it? No.

Verdict: Keep. It sounds interesting. Kind of like Life of Pi, but in the Grand Canyon and with more people.

Project list: none.

#87:The Big Bang Symphony: A Novel of Antarctica by Lucy Jane Bledsoe

Date added: 06/07/2010

Why is it on my TBR? I am almost certain I heard about this one on NPR.

Do I own it? No.

Verdict: Keep. I’ve never read a book set in Antarctica.

Project list: none

#88: Island Beneath the Sea by Isabel Allende

Date added: 06/07/2010

Why is it on my TBR? Not sure on this one.

Do I own it? No.

Verdict: Keep. I like Allende. I only wish my Spanish were good enough that I could read the original, untranslated version. But I can barely crawl my way through Ramona the Brave in Spanish, and I already know that story.

Project list: none.

#89: Lucky Girls by Nell Freudenberger

Date added: 06/10/2010

Why is it on my TBR? NY Times Top 20 Under 40.

Do I own it? No.

Verdict: Go. Neither the synopsis nor the reviews intrigue me.

Project list: n/a

#90: Natasha and Other Stories by David Bezmozgis,

Date added: 06/10/2010

Why is it on my TBR? NY Times Top 20 Under 40

Do I own it? No.

Verdict: Keep (B list).

Project list: none.

Two more titles off the list for a total of 21 out of 90 titles crossed off (2.8% of the original TBR).

I wonder if maybe I shouldn’t just select all and delete. Works for my email.

Are there any of these that I kept that you would have jettisoned? (Or any that I jettisoned that you recommend I keep, even though that wouldn’t help whittle my TBR list down?)

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